The Ramsey Show - App - What Should I Do While Going Through a Divorce? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 30, 2021

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Live Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show. Where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Christy Wright. Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today.

Open phones as we answer your questions about your life and your money. The phone number here, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Sam's with us in New York City to start off this hour. Hey, Sam, how are you? I'm doing well. It's a pleasure to speak to you. You too.

What's up? Life's great. Quick question for you. I'm newly married. I am expecting our first child, God willing, in about a month. Yay! Thank you. We have about 50 combined, about $50,000 or $60,000 sitting in an account jointly between our two accounts.

About $60,000 so far in some, like, $10,000 is in the S&P 500 and $6,000 is in mutual funds that my wife had before we got married. I have about $28,000 sitting in Canada in some investments. I'm originally Canadian. My question to you is, with this 50,000, 60,000, which by the way, this is including the emergency fund. We didn't like split it out yet. It's just sitting in an account. My question to you is, to take that money, to put it into real estate as opposed to the market. I know you're a big fan of mutual funds and so on and so forth. I wanted to hear your thoughts. Okay.

Do you have any debt? No. You're a debt. Oh, that's cool. Good for you. Well, I'm a big fan of having a huge pile of cash when a baby's on the way. And when baby comes and baby and mommy are okay and you come home, then we kind of push play on what we call our baby steps and so if you're debt free then your first baby step would be to set aside you as you said the emergency fund i'd carve some of that out

and christy we always say three to six months of expenses yeah and i think one of the cool things is you guys already have this in place before the baby comes a lot of people are trying to stockpile cash for a baby, and you're already there. And so once the baby's here and healthy, then you can put any of that extra on your investments, baby steps four, five, and six, paying off the house. Do you guys own your home?

No, so we're renting now. I mean, we're planning to buy in the next couple of years. So you're saying it's to wait it out until after my wife gets birth? Yeah. Yeah, just hold on to you're saying it's to wait it out until after my wife gets birth? Yeah. Yeah, just hold on to the cash because it's just good to have that extra cushion when you're bringing a baby into the world just for any unexpected medical expenses,

that type of thing. And then whatever your next goal is, if your next goal is to buy a house at some point, then some of that can go into savings to save up for a down payment on a house. So really just the baby steps are there to guide you what the goals should be. But where you are with having your emergency fund and then, you know, your investments and so on, then you can start looking at that goal of saving for a house as well.

Got it. And you think our emergency fund should be a little bigger being that my wife's on maternity leave. She's not going to be working for the next couple of months. I mean, she stopped working a couple of weeks ago. Just wanted her, that I kind of of a chill coming up to the delivery. Can you make it on your income? So I'm self-employed. I know.

Can you make it on your income? I make anywhere between $600 to $3,000 a week. So it's like a little nerve-wracking. It hit me last night a little bit. But today, the next two days, I'm going to be making, like, almost two grand. Well, realistically, during the time your wife is on maternity leave, can you make it on your income? I should be able to, yes. Okay.

Then you shouldn't need the emergency fund. It shouldn't come up. I think you can. I think you're just being a new daddy worry wart, which means you're a good dad, okay? You're concerned about your family. That's a good thing. But I think you're going to do it. I think you're going to bust it and make sure that you make enough to live on while she's on maternity leave, and you won't need to touch it. But I would have a fully funded emergency fund, and I would set the rest of the money aside

for my house fund. And then I would begin putting 15% of my income away in retirement in good mutual funds. But I think you're fine to park that money for real estate for a purchase. But no, I would not buy real estate as an investment right now. I think you're saving for your first home, a big down payment above your emergency fund. And that's how I'm going to start allocating that stuff out. Well, that's the reason, too, that we even suggest a range for your emergency fund, that's how i'm going to start allocating that stuff out well that's the reason too that we even suggest a range for your emergency fund three to six months different people have different comfort levels different uh incomes and so if it gives you more comfort sam to have a six month emergency fund instead of a three month then you can do that as well if it gives you

peace of mind yeah i would do that but i again i would do that and plan not to not use it yeah plan to live on your income. Yeah. Because this is all, we know this is all coming. Jeff's with us in Cape Cod. Hi, Jeff. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, how are we doing today?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Excellent. So I'm just trying to find out kind of what you would do in my situation or if I'm handling this correctly. Back in October, my wife wanted a divorce and left, leaving me with the house, two dogs, and two children as a stay-at-home dad for the last three years. She then lied in court and got awarded the house, resulting in me and the children having to leave with no income and no job. I've since started a handyman home improvement business

and have about $4,000 saved, but I'm having trouble finding an apartment, and I definitely can't get a mortgage. So kind of just looking to see what you would do. Why are you having trouble finding an apartment? One, just getting callbacks from real estate agents or landlords. Two, they need the requiring pay stuff, which I don't have because I'm self-employed. They rent apartments all the time to self-employed people.

Is there a place to find those? I've never had to rent before. I've always been able to buy a home until now. The only place I know is, you know, apartments.com or Zillow. Yeah. Well, no, I mean, you make a list of the rental properties in the area off of several different sites that you can find, and you call them one at a time, and you call the real estate agent that's involved one at a time, and you make a list of the apartments in the area, and you start calling them one at a time.

You don't have to go through Zillow. You don't have to go through a website or apartments.com. You can just look up and go, there's an apartment right over there. I'm going to call those people. There's one over there. I'm going to call those people, and there's one over there, and I'm going to call those people, and just sit. You don't have anything more important to do than to get you and the kids off the street.

That's your number one goal. Right. Yeah, we currently live in a camper at a campground. I picked it up for $100. That's the beginning of the spring. The best thing I could think of at the time. Yeah.

Jeff, I just hear fear in your voice. And listen, exactly like Dave said, you can do this. Listen, you can do this. You're going to start looking at the apartments one at a time. You're going to take one step at a time. You're scared, but you can do this. How old are your kids? Two and three.

Okay. Yeah. The three-year-old's going to write a best-selling book when he's extremely successful. It talks about the time that he lived in a camper and how he and his dad came all the way back from that. It's going to be a great story. Now go write it. What are your teens and preteens doing this summer? If they're business-minded or are wanting some extra cash, the Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox is perfect for them. Best-selling author Anthony O'Neill created this toolbox to walk teens through eight easy, practical steps for starting their own business using our proven plan.

Your teens can turn their ideas into a profitable business right from home. Teens love the ready-to-use tools, the interactive app, and of course, the money they earn. And you'll love the parent guide and the conversation starter flash cards that help bring up discussions about money and hard work whether it's mowing lawns or selling handmade goods the teen entrepreneur toolbox will help your teen turn their ideas into a business it will also teach them hard work leadership responsibility and self-confidence buy the teen entrepreneur toolbox at our online store at DaveRamsey.com or call our Ramsey con, is our co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

At some point, every business owner has to stop daydreaming about their business idea and actually go do it! Once you're working hard to grow your business, you'll need advice about how to take it to the next level. No matter which stage you're in, you can make money doing what you love. And the Business Boutique Conference will show you how to make it happen. October 14th through the 16th, I will join a lineup of rock star speakers, including Christy Wright, Anthony O'Neill, Jasmine Starr, Nona Jones, and Bianca Oltoff. You got it.

And I'm making sure I said that right. That's right. And walk you through all the different ways you can build your business. Starting and running a business is a big deal. We'd love to have you. We've been doing this event, this Business Boutique event, for many years. Christy is a rock star. And a three-day event in person in Nashville, $89.

Or guess what? You can also look at the live stream. Text Boutique to 33-789. Boutique to 33-789. Christy, this event has a different level of energy. That's an understatement. I don't know if it's because it's all women, and there really is something about that crowd that the fact that it's a women's conference is so it feels safe, but it's also exciting.

And what's cool is you have a variety of people represented in the crowd. It's some small businesses, some side businesses. Some women are running, you know, medium, small, medium sized teams. Got home based hobby business. You know, you got nonprofits. You got everybody in there, but they're all moving forward, chasing their their dream trying to figure out how to do this thing and we give them the tools and the solutions to do that talk about marketing money social media all those things that they need help with october 14th through the 16th business boutique in nashville $89 text boutique to 33 789 boutique to 33 789 our question of the day comes from blinds.com

they have a 100 satisfaction guarantee that means even if you mess up if you mismeasure you pick the wrong color like i've done before they'll remake your window blinds for free this is a great company free samples free shipping new promos all the time. Blinds.com. Use the promo code Ramsey. Today's question comes from Matthew in South Carolina. I'd love your opinion and tips on how to start a cleaning business. I work a full-time job making $38,000 before taxes. I've always had a niche for cleaning and want to start my own business.

I have no clue about where to start, what to save up, how to apply for business loans, etc. I have no debt and I'm on baby step three. I'd appreciate any help you can give me. What's interesting about this question, Dave, is I get a similar question often, which is this idea that you've got to have this big, huge savings account. You've got to apply for loans. You've got to do all this stuff to start a business. Look, get you some cleaners and start cleaning. Get some cleaning supplies. Reach out to people. Start cleaning in your neighborhood. Start word of mouth. Post on your Facebook page. Get a little bit scrappy Matthew in South Carolina and start doing this thing on the side. You do not need business loans, not for any business, but especially not for this business. And you can start really small with the cash that you have to get some cleaning supplies and start doing this.

It doesn't have to be a big deal. Yeah, this is what we've done, Matthew, here. It started on a card table in my living room coming up on 30 years ago and never borrowed money. 100%, we took what we had and went and made some money with it. And we took that money and grew the business and took what we had and went and made some money with it. And that's called organically growing your business, meaning the money that's here is the money we use to grow this business, and it has worked all the way up to where we are today and so uh and it can start

with a bottle of 409 and some rags that's right that's right of all businesses this is a very easy business that you want to do to start small with what you have with some cash on your hand yeah and the trick is to get the first job yeah and then they give you money and you take that money and you can upgrade your supplies your tools and some printed materials or a business card or whatever you want to do and then you take that money from that next job and you can grow a little bit more and then you get to actually start making some money beyond your costs and you keep adding revenue and the revenue is what you use to grow this business with. Nothing else.

Yep. A business alone in this situation would be ludicrous. That's what Christy's saying, and she's exactly right. So we're going to avoid that at all costs. Chuck is with us in Orlando. Hi, Chuck. How are you? I'm doing great, Mr. Ramsey.

It's a pleasure to speak with you. You too. What's up? Well, I was just wondering if you could, well, personally, I could just qualify by saying thank you guys so much for the advice that you give. You guys have helped our family so much. Me and my wife are so grateful. We're actually debt-free. We've paid our home off.

Wow. Congratulations. No debt whatsoever. Thank you so much. But I was wondering if you could just speak into a little bit that feeling of, I don't know if you call it restlessness or, you know, kind of, to me, I kind of define it by saying that you feel like you're drowning in a sea of options a little bit once you're debt-free. And I know it's a wonderful problem to have, but for us, it's just felt, at least for the past several months, since we paid our home off and officially became debt-free, that we're kind of looking for what to do next, and we're kind of a little bit fearful.

You know, the purpose is so baked in when you're, you know, gazelle intense, you're paying off debt, you're paying off debt, you're frugal. It changes a lot of things about your life. And, you know, for us, we're very happy to be where we are, and we definitely are very grateful. But we just seem to be a little stuck on kind of what to do next. I'm so curious your answer to this, Dave, because I was just talking to a friend about this the other day, where she was saying someone had said, once you become completely debt-free, it's almost you struggle to find what's the next goal. What do you talk to people about that? That's so interesting.

Well, you need a goal. That's what you need because that's what's missing. You had a goal. It was very clearly defined. It was right in front of you. In this case, it was the villain, the debt. You're trying to kill the villain, right? But now we get to switch gears, and we go from villain as a goal to prosperity as a goal and generosity as a goal.

And so there's three things you can do with money, and you need to be doing all three, and you need to be doing them in writing and on purpose towards a goal. And number one is, you know, generosity. Number two is investing. And number three is just, you know, lifestyle, enjoying, fun. And so I have a goal to take a trip and spend uh three weeks in africa or three weeks in australia which i've done both of um in the last three or four years um you know the i have a goal of buying a lake house uh these are these are lifestyle things you're going to do and you start

saving towards that goal put a number on it and it becomes the part that portion of your budget that you're putting towards fun or lifestyle you go towards that uh i have a goal of uh you know building an orphanage i have a goal of uh i had a goal it was pretty cool i i had i saw a guy one time he told me he had given away uh that year he had given away a million dollars and i thought man that was that's pretty cool. And I did that. And then, okay, now what am I going to do? Because I climbed that mountain. Now what are you going to do?

I want to give away a million dollars in one day. And then I was able to do that like year before last. Yeah. So with the Christmas presents we gave to our team and some support for a local orphanage and some other things we did, we were able in one day, in one morning, we gave away a million dollars. So, you know, you got to have something that you just go, okay, I'm going to go. This is my new thing. I'm going to go for that.

And I'm going to go for that. And on the investing side, I just, I keep up with net worth just because, not because I'm building bigger barns or something, but it's just a way that I've got to keep score somewhere on my goal. And so, you know, you hit a net worth of a million dollars, and you want to hit a net worth of $5 million, and you want to hit a net worth of $10 million. It's not because you're just greedy and trying to gather up money, but it's just you need to be aiming at something with this investing.

Otherwise, it just seems to be spinning off into nothingness and so a clearly defined measurable goal um and uh just like i want to have my house paid off by this date i want to be i want a million point five net worth by that date you know that kind of a thing and so it is all about goals but you ought to really have some acquisition goals for fun or travel goals or whatever they are i want to buy that sports car goal for fun and you ought to have some for generosity do you know i don't care what it is you i want to fund missionaries i want to fund 400 missionaries i don't care whatever it is you know but figure it out and write it down and put a dollar figure to it and then put a time limit on it. And that'll give you your right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Lauren is with us. Hey, Lauren, how are you?

Good, how are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where do you live? Carlisle, Pennsylvania. All right, fun. What's that near? That is right outside of Harrisburg.

Oh, okay. Cool, cool. Know where you are. So all the way to Nashville to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? $74,555.74. There you go. To the penny.

How long did this take? 21 months. Yeah. And your range of income during that time? $42,000 up to $50,000. Wow. Okay. So what kind of debt was the $75,000? All student

loans. Whoa. What'd you go to school for? I have a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in higher education. Good for you. Okay. What do you do for a living? I work as a student affairs professional in higher education. Ah, good. Okay. And so that income should be heading right up then? Hopefully. That's the idea. Good. Very good. Okay. So did you get out of school 21 months ago? What happened 21 months ago that started this journey? So this really started for me back in, well, back when I was a kid, actually. I remember watching my parents struggle with money so much, and I would have conversations with myself and I would say whenever you grow up you're never going to have this fear and anxiety

that you're feeling that you're feeling right now watching your parents struggle so then I grew up went to college and did everything normal I took out student loans because I didn't know anything different and then in 2018 and like November, right before I was heading into my last semester of grad school, I remember talking to my dad and just saying how fearful I was of these student loans and that I didn't know how I was going to make these payments. And he happened to mention your name. So it kind of started off from there. I dove into the podcast and I ended up taking Financial Peace University in January of that year. Oh, wow. And then once I graduated in May, I landed a job. And then once I got my job, I started running in June.

Yeah, just going wide open. Live like a college student and pay it off. Yes. That's awesome. And you basically did $35,000 a year for two years is basically your numbers, yeah? Mm-hmm. And hardly made that. Yeah.

You've been on beans and rice. Well, luckily, my mom picked up the pieces a lot and let me live at home for free. Ah, okay. So that helped. Nice to have a cheerleader in your corner. Very good. And some help like that.

Very, very cool. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now? I think there's really three things that drove this home for me. The first one is really know your why and turn it into a vision. Every day, get up and visualize what your why is because that's what's going to drive you through this process. What was your why? No anxiety? My why was remembering that feeling that I had as a kid and never wanting to feel that again.

Yeah, that's a good one. The second thing is commit to the plan. Just do it. Stop questioning it. No is. Yes. And then the third one is believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, it doesn't matter if somebody else believes in you or what you're seeing on social media. I actually took a social media hiatus for

a year because I couldn't take the anxiety of it. Yeah. That's really powerful, Lauren. Those three points are really, really powerful. And that could apply to lots of things right like the believe in yourself that's really but one of the things you said that i love is when you were talking about a little bit your journey that you just went to college and did things normal and i think sometimes inside this building i'll say you know for myself dave i can take for granted that what we do here is weird it is different when you go to college it's just normal to take out loans. It's normal to have credit cards. You don't even question it. You didn't even feel like you were doing anything wrong.

You're like, oh, no, this is just what you do, how you go to school. And gosh, good for you for just so quickly turning around, paying that off, doing things weird. So now you can be standing on this stage completely debt-free of those loans. Well done. That's impressive. Way to go. We're proud of you. Thank you.

Excellent, excellent job. You know, I have never heard anyone say, you know, I spend most of my day on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, and it just gives me such peace. It makes me feel so good about myself. I'm so peaceful as a result. I never heard soul say that ever. These are not things people say uh so that hiatus was a really good idea and gives it allows you to stay focused and be around you could control the voices that are coming at you only have the cheerleaders around

get rid of the debbie downers and uh focus and go very well done good stuff what was the hardest part for you i thought a lot about this question, preparing for this, actually. And my answer isn't the typical, it was budgeting or committing to the plan. For me, it was the fact that I had just left school and I lived there for six years. I had my, I created a new family there. I had everything there. And then my job search actually landed me going back to my hometown, which I was not prepared for.

So I think the hardest part of me was dealing with these two worlds, these two seasons that would normally be happening at separate times are now clashing. So for me, it was really taking care of my mental health and dealing with the mourning process of everything that I lost moving back home. Yeah. And not only back to your own hometown, but you moved back into your parents after being away. Yeah. And that's a gutsy, courageous move because that's a step down. It was a nice gesture, and it was very generous, and it helped you mathematically. But emotionally, that was kind of a punch, wasn't it? Oh, yeah. Definitely hurt my ego a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine. I can imagine. You're a sharp young lady. I know your parents are proud of you. We are. Very, very well done.

We've got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you. That is the next chapter in your story for sure. You've used this why to change your life, and you'll never have those issues around anxiety because now you'll always tell money what to do. And you discovered that it's not when you got out of debt, but when you started the process of getting out of debt, the peace came, didn't it? Right away.

Yeah. Pretty quickly. As soon as I start telling the money what to do, I get peace from it. I don't have to get there yet. Yeah. But yeah, very well done. And we're going to give you a copy of the total money makeover

for you to give away and start somebody else's journey. Pay it forward a little bit. So good stuff. All right. It'suren from the harrisburg pennsylvania area 75 000 paid off in 21 months making 42 to 50 what a great life change count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one i'm debt free yeah i love it you know her other point was what you believe to be true yeah and uh the old story um dan miller used to tell the circus elephant

um and i don't know we all heard it somewhere from somebody but uh you know you go in there's a bull elephant that's you know many many tons could push over a house and he's standing there with a rope a small rope around his ankle and a small stake driven in the ground he could easily just flex that ankle and that steak would go flying. And you say, well, why would he stand there? How can that rope possibly hold him? And the trainer says, well, the rope can't hold him. What holds him is his belief that it can hold him. Because when he was a baby elephant, we put a chain with a big steak around his ankle.

And he pushed against it, pulled against it to no avail, and now he believes that the chain is still there, and he can't do it, so he won't do it. Won't try. You know, really believing. You might find that what's holding you back is just some kind of shadow from the past, not the reality of the truth. And I think that's what kills people like me and you when we see people like that stuck, whether it's in their finances or in some other area of their life.

With Ken Coleman, with people in careers they hate, they think, well, this is just as good as it gets. This is what I have to do. This is life. This is my cards. People like me can't get ahead. Yeah. You don't know my story.

You don't know what I've... And, you know, maybe you don't, but gosh, it's like there's so much of it that you can do that you may not even realize because of that belief keeping you stuck. And it's just, it's painful to watch, honestly. And it's... You kind of give it the kind of German Shepherd look, the, hmm? You know, the, hmm? Well, how's that rope holding that elephant?

How is that? How is it a person that looks like that and is educated like that believes they're stuck? They're not stuck. Right. But they believe they are. So, ta-da, they are. Right. Right.

And that's a beautiful point that Lauren just made. Very powerful. Very powerful. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Elena is with us in Lexington, Kentucky. Hi, Elena. How are you? I'm doing well.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so thank you so much for taking my call. My question is, so my husband retired from the military in February of 2020. In processing the retirement paperwork, there was an issue with enrolling in the survivor benefit program, so it was denied. Since then, we have appealed to try to overturn the denial but have not been successful. So the last open enrollment for the SBP, is what they call it, was in 2005, and to have the SBP, it costs 6% of the retirement income.

If we are to buy into the program we would owe any mispremium so my question is should we continue to pursue this no okay not worth it no so the goal is for you to get a portion of his military retirement upon his death but what you are paying for that with the scenario you laid out is outrageous. Right. Not only in lost current benefits, but in the back pay where they're going to go back after you on the whole thing. No, you're fighting for something you don't even want, really, at the end of the day. So what is his retirement income?

$3,000 a month. Okay, $3,000 a month. Okay, $36,000 a year. And how old is he? He is 59. Okay. What kind of shapes is he in? Great shape. Medically good.

Medically good. Yes, yes. Go to ZanderInsurance.com and get a term life insurance policy for $400,000 on him. Okay. If he dies, $400,000 goes into a mutual fund. If it paid 10% for easy numbers right now, that would be $40,000 a year, which is more than his retirement is. Okay. Which is $36,000 a year, which is more than his retirement is. Okay.

Which is $36,000 a year. Okay. Okay, so what we're doing is we're offset, and that term policy will cost you a whole lot less than what you're getting ready to pay for survivor benefits that won't even amount to $3,000 a month. Gotcha. Okay, so... Well, we'd be half.

Yeah. Okay. Well, we'd be half. Yeah. Okay. So if you only want to buy a $300,000 or even a $250,000 policy, $250,000 would be $2,000 a month coming in if you invested that at 10%. You follow me? Now, here's the other thing. You're not going to keep this policy forever. He's 59. You're probably going to get it for five years, maybe 10 years, something like that. Okay. it for five years maybe 10 years something like that okay now the uh because and during that time you're going to have money in savings that you would live off of because you're going to drop

that uh that life insurance policy when it gets super expensive later okay but if he's healthy at 59 you'll be surprised how cheaply you can buy a couple hundred thousand dollars on him. Okay. And that's what I would do. No, you don't want that survivor benefit. Interesting call. Thank you. And tell him thanks for his service to his country.

We appreciate it. So when you sign up for a pension plan of any kind, but certainly the military, you can agree to take a reduced amount while you're alive, and then your spouse gets the money. It gets a further reduced amount upon your death, or your spouse gets nothing. And so the survivor benefit is who survives after the death of the person that's supposed to be getting the pension. And so you can, it kind of, you know, when you run the numbers back out, the amount you end up getting, what it costs you in reduced benefits currently usually doesn't work very good. That makes sense. Yeah.

Usually you're better off to self-insure through the death of that person or by a policy, like a term policy, like we were just talking about. And that gets them out. Dawn is with us in Phoenix. Hey, Dawn, how are you? Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call, and thanks for all the advice you give everybody. Appreciate it. Sure.

What's up? Hey, so I have no debt except for two properties that I own. One of them is my primary residence, and one of them is a rental property. I'm getting ready to sell my rental property, and I'm thinking that I should use all the proceeds that I get from this to pay off the mortgage for my primary residence. Yay. Is that the move I should make? Is that a question, Donna? Should I do that?

Yes. I mean, that sounds brilliant. So what's your income? So jointly, we're about $275,000. Okay. And how old are you guys? I'm 53, and my husband's 55. Okay.

And so you have this wonderful income, and now you have not a payment in the world. Right. And then the other question is, should we bump up our retirement investment to like 50% of our income? Or what should we do with this extra money? I know we want to invest. You know, we're very generous with our community, friends, family, you know, people in need. So just trying to figure out how we need to take care of the old people when we get that age. Somehow I got a feeling you're going to be all right. But the, you know, here's the thing. How much should, you're 100% debt free, you've got your emergency fund. How much should I invest?

And the answer to the question is a question. How wealthy do you want to be? Because the more you invest... Well, you know, I want to be as wealthy as I can so I can continue to help others. Yep. So the point is, obviously, the more you invest, the wealthier you're going to become, right? Right. And so the more you consume instead of investing, the less that formula works.

There's three things you can do with money when you get to baby step seven. You can give it, and you should. You can enjoy it, and you're better, and you can invest it. Oh, you definitely better do that one. The thing is, you need to put a very specific dollar amount on your generosity and say, every year we're going to give away this percentage of our income. Every year we're going to invest this percentage of our income.

Every year we are going to enjoy this percentage of our income. And that allows you to buy something silly, guilt-free, because it's budgeted. Okay. Because you ought to buy something silly, guilt-free because it's budgeted okay because you ought to buy something silly guilt-free right you're rich we've been working hard for a long time that's right that's right you have yeah you've been working your butts off you make 275 000 a year you have not a payment in the world you did it touchdown do the dance spike the ball okay it just seems so weird to be at this point yep yep it is it's a good way i gotta tell you it is it is an emotional problem when you get there because it's almost like you have survivor guilt like everybody in the plane died but me why was i spared you know right and it's like how did i get here i'm a kid from antioch

tennessee i'm sitting in a uh you know a 150 million dollar building and i paid cash for it how did i get here i can't get my head around that emotionally and yet i do mathematically know how i got here and i do know the calluses on my hand and on my brain from all the hard work i've done to get here i get all of that but then you still go holy crap right i sit here in freaking utopia yeah it's got my name on the outside of it look sharon it's got our name on it you know it's like you have these moments where you don't it's survivor guilt you're still that that kid from antioch inside you know you're like how do we do it but like you said dave it's the hard work and i love that that advice it's so similar to an earlier call like what do we do it? But like you said, Dave, it's the hard work. And I love that advice. It's so similar to an earlier call.

Like, what do we do at Baby Step 7? You need a new goal, a new percentage. You need to know what your vision is in this new stage. It's going to take a minute to wrap your head around what this looks like and even feels like with that different type of problem. But it's a good, different, it's a good kind of problem to have. Yeah. And, oh, by the way, you you know just go ahead and warn you guys these baby steps like work yeah yeah you will get there and so you're going to have this emotional

problem yeah if you keep doing the stuff i teach you to do because you're going to become wealthy and then you're going to go i just spent on a car more than I made one year. How? And it doesn't even matter. It's not even close. It's just a stinkin' You can't get your and it doesn't even compare to what we did generosity wise. It doesn't even compare to what we did investment wise but it still feels weird.

Like oh this really does work. This really does work. We're doing it. Expect to have emotional whiplash when you get there. Yeah. You know, it feels like it's an out-of-body experience. Yeah. If you get used to it, you're kind of arrogant or weird.

I'll just go ahead and tell you, expect the emotional whiplash. It goes with the territory. This is the Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to theramseyshow.com. week and a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country